The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is a pan-European think tank with offices in seven European capitals and in the United States. It was launched in October 2007 and conducts research on European foreign and security policy.

Offices

ECFR has offices in Berlin, London, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Warsaw, Washington, and Sofia.

Founding and funding

ECFR was founded in 2007 by Mark Leonard together with a council of fifty founding members, chaired by Martti Ahtisaari, Joschka Fischer, and Mabel van Oranje. Initial funding came from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, the Communitas Foundation, Sigrid Rausing, Unicredit, and Fundación Para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior (FRIDE).

Leadership

ECFR’s council is currently chaired by Carl Bildt, Lykke Friis, and Norbert Röttgen.

Membership

ECFR’s membership includes figures such as İbrahim Kalın, the current director of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT), and Bruno Maçães, a Portuguese political scientist and former Secretary of State for European Affairs.